COLLABORATION BASED SITING
ECA facilitates deeper engagement and creates momentum for nuclear waste solutions by distributing resources for qualifying individual communities that demonstrate readiness to begin localized education and outreach related to responsible fuel cycle management. ECA is working to build capacity in communities interested in collaboration-based siting. These efforts ensure communities have the information - and informed representatives - to meaningfully engage on the issues facing a potential host of a nuclear waste facility.
Grants have been awarded to meet the following goals:
• Create, organize and lead meaningful, inclusive community and stakeholder engagement opportunities that elicit public values, interests, concerns, and goals related to spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste management.
• Identify needed partners, including community partners, private industry, and other stakeholders and their role in siting a potential Consolidated Interim Storage Facility (CISF). • Develop model organizational/governance structures and partnerships – within the community, region, private industry, State, Tribal governments – necessary to develop a shared vision for future development that could include a nuclear waste mission.
• Capture results, lessons learned, and impact evaluations to be shared at quarterly siting consortia meetings during the life of the project.
For the purposes of these grants, an “Eligible Recipient” included municipal or local government entities, state government created councils of local governments, community reuse organizations, and municipal government related organizations (such economic development entities) that are internal revenue service recognized 501(c)(3) organizations. A community did not need to be an ECA member to apply.